A Wise Word:

Witchcraft is all about living to the heights and depths of life as a way of worship. --LY DE ANGELES

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Spiritual Gardening

A few weeks ago, Superman walked past my alter and mentioned that it looked rather sad. He was right. I have since fixed it, only to get wax all over it on Lammas. With all the time I have been spending in the garden, I have been substituting my altar time with Earth time. If I had a garden space of my own, I would completely move my altar outdoors during the more temperate months.

Several mornings a week, I take Miss Busy and Little Moon to the garden with me. Perched in their double stroller and armed with snacks and sippy cups, the girls settle into a meditate state of stuffing their faces. In the silence that ensues, I invoke the elements and offer praise to the Universe while I weed, sucker, and harvest. Standing barefooted in my garden with soil on my hands, I connect with nature and am nature.

Even now, when my garden is not nearly as beautiful as it was when these photos were taken, a rather intense hail storm battered all the beautiful leaves I find great inspiration in the strength and resilience found springing from the earth. The plants are beginning to show the signs of weather and age, yet still they are producing food for my family. In fact, the stress of our recent storm seems to have spurred some plants my cucumbers and zinnias to finally produce. It makes me think of how we as individuals often require hard times to nudge us along in our own development. Mountain gardening is a challenge in so many ways, but the struggles associated with it are teaching me so much. Not just about this ecosystem and climate, but about myself and my relationship with the Earth.

Finding a Witch

As a little girl, I told my parents that I preferred being barefoot because I could feel the Earth breathing through the soles of my feet. Of course, with their typical conservative piousness, I was quickly shushed and informed that the Earth did not breathe. Even though I never mentioned it again, I didn't for a moment believe them.

For many years, I communed silently with the elements and in times of need used childish spell work to pull healing from the Earth and soothing from the Wind. It was my secret superstition and I hid it well beneath my fundamentalist Christian costume.

After being freed from the church for several years, I begin to pursue the secret knowledge I have carried with me all this time. That is how I got here: joyfully practicing the old faith in this little apartment. I'm still in the broom closet most days and I have a lot to learn, but the journey has begun.